12

The duo stood on the sand and watched the black portal close above their head. When the portal was gone, all they could see was the full moon and the stars in the sky. This was the usual sight of Hueco Mundo since it would always be night there.

Kojuro pulled out a compass that had an arrow made out of red reiatsu and was pointing in a certain direction. Kojuro started running that way and Ren had no choice but to follow along. He hurried to tear off a piece of his uniform and tie it to a nearby tree before he hurried to catch up.

The pair ran for a few hours until they finally saw their target. They had seen several hollows but most were standard hollows with a few gillians every now and then. Their target was the only human looking figure that they had seen.

The man had a muscular build, black and orange hair, and a bone mask that covered the left side of his face. The man was naked from the waist up with bone armor covering his entire lower body as well as a striped tail. He had a hole in the middle of his chest where his heart should have been. In each of his arms was a thick and large tonfa.

The first thought anyone would come up with when they saw him was that he was similar to a tiger.

'He is in resurrecion already? Actually, seeing the destruction around him, he most likely just got out of a fight.'

The arrancar turned and looked at Ren and Kojuro who were looking down on him from a sand dune. Both sides just stared at each other for a few moments.

"It seems that my acts have finally gotten some proper attention. I have been waiting for one of your captains to come along. Guess it took two dead lieutenants to finally happen but it did," he said while looking at Kojuro's white haori.

He turned to Ren and said, "I don't know what your rank is but since you are not a captain, I have no need for you. Leave if you wanna live."

Neither shinigami was really bothered by his words but both unsheathed their zanpakuto.

"This guy is already in his resurrecion. That is comparable to bankai or shikai depending on the arrancar. Begone with the thunderclap! Kirin!"

Lightning began surrounding Kojuro's body. When it dispersed, Kojuro's upper body was bare. All of his scars were glowing neon blue as if lightning was about to shoot out of them. His zanpakuto had transformed into a large blue and black guandao.

Kojuro and the arrancar charged towards each other. When their weapons clashed, a large amount of lightning and reiatsu was released. Ren looked on from above since he wanted to see how strong the man who took the name Kenpachi was.

The pair clashed once, twice, three times. Each time they unleashed more and more reiatsu. The duo did not battle with elegance or grace but instead fought like savages. It was a comparison of raw strength instead of ability. And the weird thing was, Kojuro was winning.

With every blow, although neither was injured, both sides would get knocked back slightly. But with every knock back, the arrancar moved twice the distance as Kojuro. This made Ren shocked.

Shinigami were more about technique. They compensated their weak bodies with zanpakuto, kido, hakuda, hoho, and other means.

Hollows were more animalistic and cared more about physical abilities. Although the rare hollow had special abilities, the rest used their pure strength to kill shinigami, quincy, or anyone else that they came across.

Even arrancar who broke parts of their masks to gain humanity were considered more beast than man. And their bestial traits, their raw strength usually surpassed shinigami by a large margin.

So for Kojuro to be able to overpower a tiger-type arrancar in their resurrecion with only his shikai, that was unbelievable.

'No. It's actually not. Even after all these years, I still have not gotten over it. Zaraki and his predecessors were really weak. This guy. This is a true Kenpachi!'

Just as he thought that another clash occurred. But this one ended with Kojuro breaking through the arrancar's defense and landing a blow on his chest. This caused a large gaping wound to appear on his chest.

The arrancar backed away and stared at Kojuro in rage.

"You dare! Rondando La Montaña!"

Black and green wind began to gathering around both of the arrancar's tonfa and formed small tornados around each one. He let out a roar before charging toward Kojuro with the intent to kill him with a single move.

Kojuro pulled his guandao back as if it was a spear he was ready to thrust.

"Umi O Utsu Inazuma!"

Blue and purple lightning ran along the length of the weapon before gathering at the tip. Kojuro dashed forward and let his zanpakuto meet the tonfa of the arrancar.

This time, there was no explosion. There was no clash. There was energy wasted and unleashed upon the environment.

Kojuro's attack was able to pierce through the arrancar's attack, cut apart his weapons, and stab into his chest before unleashing the lightning within its body.

The lightning ran its course through the arrancar's body as it began to glow blue and purple before being destroyed from the rampant energy running through its body.

'So this is what it means to be the strongest. I could probably take him on if I used by shikai but if his bankai makes him 5-10 times stronger just like anyone else, I'm not sure if I could beat him with just my shikai.

No, I definitely couldn't. I would need to use my own bankai to match his. Even then, I'm not sure what other abilities he has. This place is full of weird abilities.

My best bet would be to kill him before he could unleash either of his abilities to give myself the best chance of winning.'

Even after seeing that fight, Ren still thought about his chances of battling. No matter how strong Kojuro was, Ren knew that he had to eventually take the title of Kenpachi. He needed a surname afterall.